Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/790371
49 Q1 2017 / CINEMONTAGE submitted it for publication, thus explaining the lack of information about it in the printed record. In fact, a search of Daily Variety archives did not turn up any article or advertisement about this new loop-free method. Within the first couple years of operation, someone at Glen Glenn Sound decided that Automated Dialogue Dubbing was not a good name. After all, the word "dubbing" could also be taken to mean re-recording (see sidebar, page 53). So Glen Glenn Sound rebranded its loop-less system as "Automatic Dialogue Replacement." Meanwhile in New York City, Otto Popelka and his team at Magna-Tech Electronic Company (MTE), introduced their "electronic looping system" during Fall 1968. First installed at Manhattan Sound Studio on West 54th Street, the MTE system received a substantial description in an article published in the October 1968 issue of the American Cinematographer magazine (see Figure 3). Manhattan Sound Studio called its installation "Electronic Post-Sync." The Magna-Tech Electronic system included not only the electronic controller but also a specially designed film projector and a magnetic film recorder that could run fast-forward or reverse by as much as 144 frames per second, while still maintaining synchronization. The recorder could do inserts accurate to one frame. Like Glen Glenn Sound's loop-less system, MTE's would automatically generate three audio tones prior to the start of the line to serve as a means of cueing the actor. From the unidentified author of the American Cinematographer article: "It was pointed out that the Electronic Post-Sync System precludes the need for cutting loops and eliminates the editing of the track. Complete reels of the motion picture are run in synchronization with the full-coat magnetic film, on which the sound track is recorded, and transfer of the best takes is made to the third track of the same recorder. This track now has all of the final takes in sequential position and ultimately permits the screening of the picture and the final edited track in perfect synchronization." The MTE-developed system was rapidly adopted by sound facilities in New York City. According to Paul Zydel, one of New York's ADR mixers, "When ADR first came to New York, it was called Electronic Post Sync. EPS never caught on; Hollywood didn't accept the term..." (Sound-on-Film: Interviews with Creators of Film Sound by Vincent LoBrutto, 1994). Curiously, MTE advertisements always referred to its no-loop family of machines as an "electronic looping system," Figure 4: Makes "Looping" Obsolete Ad from Magna-Tech Electronic Company. Journal of the SMPTE, September 1969, courtesy of AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library Figure 5: Ad for Ryder Reverse-O- Matic, Daily Variety, May 1969, courtesy of AMPAS Margaret Herrick Library